Sunday, July 31, 2016

There was a joke going around when I was a youth which neatly encapsulated the essence of the popular Western movies with Gene Autry:

"The outlaws burned down my ranch house, shot my dog and rustled my herd! I'm gonna form a posse and track down those varmints... but first I'm gonna sing a little song!"

I've written before about my affection for the serials of my youth, the chapterplays as they were known, shorts that were the staples of Saturday matinees which were always "...Continued Next Week" just as the hero was about to be crushed between spiked walls in an underground dungeon or seen hurtling off a cliff in a speeding vehicle. More...

Monday, July 25, 2016

...but his status as a member of the Westhampton Beach Police Department is still "quo."

For those for whom the name "Joseph Pesapane" does not immediately resonate, he was one of the two Village police officers at the root of the protracted intra-depart­ment­al "missing handgun" investigation that began over seven years ago, if not as the primary actor then in the at­tempt­ed cover-up. More...

"Through monitoring conducted under a US EPA program known as the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, PFOS was detected in public supply wells in the vicinity of the New York State Air National Guard Base at Gabreski Airport located at Old River­head Road in Westhampton Beach." More...

Thursday, July 21, 2016

Well, not exactly of the "Stop the presses, replate the front page!" variety, but of interest to voters in Southampton Town Election Districts 10, 14, 30 and 37.

After more than two years of casting ballots in the Large Group Instruction Room of Westhampton Beach High School, the Board of Elections is returning the local polling place to Sunset Avenue, the new fire house, definitely for the November 8th national election, possibly for a Sep­tem­ber 13th primary.

It must be noted that Mrs. Speir and I share few political sensibilities, in witness whereof the pups and I will be holding down the homestead this weekend while she's in Philadelphia expressing her enmity of Hillary and agitating for Bernie Sanders.

Though I don't know what she'll do come November, but for her it's never hillary!

Up betimes... ah, there, Samuel Pepys... preparing for a 9:00 am coffee date with visiting ex-pat Barb Ramsay at Simon's Beach Bakery, parking in front of the demised Magic's Pub and wondering how a "wet" premises in the middle of Main Street could still remain shuttered halfway through a fifth consecutive Summer season.

Time was when, and it doesn't seem all that long ago, if I wanted to make a call to my friend Simon-the-one-they-called-Richard over in Remsenburg, I'd pick up the black handset, a voice would say "Number please?" (and that voice didn't sound anything like Lily Tomlin's "Ernestine"), I'd say "Eastport 81," and a 'phone off Basketneck Lane would start ringing.

Then we went, incrementally to exchanges, WE-4-xxxx, then the one which endures today, 288-xxxx. More...

"U.S. Representative Lee Zeldin is still pushing for a new zip code for the hamlets of Flanders, Riverside and Northampton, introducing a bill this week that comes nearly eight months after the U.S. Postal Service's postmaster rejected his request."

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

A little late on this one today, but from the number of hard hats and yellow safety vests observed around the Village just now I get the sense that there will be other advisories in the not-too-distant future. More...

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Ordinarily there mere mention of Rudy Giuliani's name is an immediately turn-off, and any reference to him as "America's Mayor" induces a reverse peristaltic response.

But his recent criticism of Black Lives Matter for its sin­gu­lar focus on (mostly white) police causing black deaths, while completely ignoring the much higher frequency of black-on-black murders, commonly reported in the inner city communities of Chicago, Detroit and elsewhere.

I still can't stand the Leroy Lockhorn-looking opportunist, but he's spot-on in those comments and the first to go on the record with them. More...

Saturday, July 09, 2016

"'We don’t know what happened, but we do know that there was a gun in the car that apparently was licensed, but it caused in some fashion those tragic events,' Obama said of (Philando) Castile’s shooting."

Friday, July 08, 2016

"Former Southampton Supervisor Anna Throne-Holst has won the Democratic primary in the first Congressional District by 319 votes over former chairman of the Suffolk Planning Commission David Calone, Suffolk election officials said Friday." More...

Wednesday, July 06, 2016

It wouldn't be appropriate to list among my "Guilty Pleasures" the cable USA series, "Royal Pains" which con­cluded an eight season, 104 episode run tonight.

It was, following it's debut in September 2009, almost a Thursday, then Wednesday, evening obligation to see how the producers were treating my Village following gratui­tously vicious dialogue labeling Westhampton Beach "the Worst Hampton" 20 minutes into the series premier. More...

Saturday, July 02, 2016

...but after four years of service the Moore/Palmer Agitprop link in the "blue menu" to the right, has been consigned to the dustbin of local history, along with the dubious stewardship of Charlie Palmer Jr.

In its stead may be seen the Tom Moore Agitprop link since it is he alone who on an irregular basis blogs on behalf of his wife's administration.